I found my next project...
1987 Honda CR125, you can follow along on this site and feel free to comment as things progress.

Monday, January 2, 2012

CR125 All Torn Apart

This weekend the 87 got the tear down treatment. The bike came apart like it was only a month old. Totally amazing. All the bolts came out easy and even the linkage bolts came out easy and didn't have a touch of rust or wear on them. The linkage bolts had only what looked like the original assembly grease from Honda and we all know that stuff just isn't enough and that's one of the first things that gets attention when you buy a new bike. Crazy enough that the bolts are in new condition even the bolt heads looked like they never had a wrench put on them. I will have to buy a 12mm Allen wrench to complete the dis assembly of the rear linkage then I will go through all the bearings and grease everything up. I don't think any of them will need replaced as every thing moves very freely.

Took the motor top end apart to see what was happening inside. It looks really good. Appears that some water was left in the exhaust for some time. Caused a little discoloration on the piston and cylinder but no damage detected also looks like one end of the ring was broken off, can't tell when that may have happened, no damage to the cylinder walls. Did a complete rinse out of the crank area with solvent. From the looks of the piston it was near a melt down, thankfully it didn't go all the way to that point. The bottom end of the motor feels unbelievably new, very tight, no sloppy bearing sounds at all, pretty excited about that. The cylinder head didn't have any carbon build up on it at all, there was a small amount of carbon in the exhaust power valve unit and the exhaust port to the pipe. I cleaned all this up and put a bit of tri-flow on the cylinder before putting it on the shelf to await a new piston and rings. The only bolt I have found with any corrosion on it at all was the bottom motor mount bolt, and it cleaned up like new with the wire wheel on my bench grinder.
I will take a look at the clutch at a later time.

The Radiators are really straight, there is a slight bend to one of the tabs for the radiator shroud and a couple of the fins are bent on that side, besides that they look new.

Also cleaned out the carb. It was pretty gunked up on the outside and there was some gunk on the inside as well. I don't really know where this stuff came from or what it is. It felt like grease but I can't imagine that it actually was. There was some kind of fluid in the carb and tank but it didn't smell like gas or old varnished gas at all. I don't know what Sta-bill smells like or looks like but was thinking that if some one actually used that and let it sit long enough for the gas to evaporate maybe thats what is left over or the same being that it should have been pre-mixed fuel, then the left over from evaporated gas would look kind of like grease?? It will remain a mistery. Anyway sprayed solvent through all holes and jets in the carb untill everything seemed to flow like it should and re-assembled it and put that on the shelf as well.

Cleaned up the stock exhaust pipe and put a coat of fast black paint on it. It does have a couple small dents that I may consider removing later on. I have a Pro Circuit pipe in a box in Montana that (well I hope its still there) was from the 87 CR I had when I was 17. I saw it a couple years ago when I was at my dads place rumaging through the shop, I told him to put it aside for me if he runs across it. That would be a great addition to this project, especially if I can find a shorty 304 silencer to go with it. Thats the combo I ran back in the day and it was awesome.

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The Back Story

This bike was originally purchased by a woman and her husband for some recreational trail riding. I have her name because its still on the title. They bought this bike (the 87) along with a 1986 CR125 (that I also bought) at the same time new in 1987. They proceded to ride the bikes for a couple of years as the story goes maybe three or four times a year. Then things between them went bad and they ended up divorcing in the early 90s. She got the bikes in the settlement. In 1995 She has a new boyfriend or husband and they decide to give the trail riding a try, they went out a few times but it turned out that they were over it. The bikes then sat in her garage untill Feb of 2010. Now the next owner comes along with his teen age son to purchase the bikes and use them for trail riding together. Neither of the new owner knew anything about bikes (and from the looks of just a few of the things on them I do mean they knew NOTHING about them) so the son takes off like he is invincable on the 1986 bike and procedes to ruin it from what I believe is running it without the use of pre-mix, ( I have not pulled the top end apart just yet). The son then decides to play mechanic and started pulling things apart without knowing what he is doing, so there are some small parts missing but was stopped before too long by Dad and saying they would have someone take a look at them. The 1987 bike was run some but at a much slower pace but probably still with no Pre-mix (it still has compression). So the bikes sit in a barn for some time waiting for Dad to have them looked at. It never happened, Son moved out Dad needs to move across country. After another year and a half in the barn now December 2011 I find the add on Craigs list and bang like that, I have two lightly used mid 80s CR125s for super cheap.